David Kappos

David, who I have met, is a pleasant fellow who, as can be seen from this photograph, bears an uncanny resemblance to Howard Poliner, the IP Law draftsman at the Israel Ministry of Justice.

With no disrespect to Howard or to the Israel Patent Office, I think that David Kappos, who served as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) from 2009 to 2013 is possibly even more eminent. Prior to being confirmed to this post by the U.S. Senate on August 7, 2009,Kappos was the vice president and assistant general counsel, intellectual property law, for IBM Corporation. Nowadays David who works for the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, handles corporate mergers and acquisitions and litigation in the private section.

There was the rather erroneously called American Invents Act and there has been a series of important Supreme Court rulings that have resulted in the US Patent Law and the USPTO undergoing major changes, particularly with regard to statutory patentable matter, with patents directed to genes, business method methods and software patents becoming more difficult to obtain and enforce. To my mind, the Supreme Court has clipped the wings of the Federal Circle Court of Appeal and I am not sure that their eminences necessarily knew what they were doing. In other respects, US patent Law has become closer to that of the rest of the world.

I have no doubt that David Kappos will have a lot of insights into what is happening and where it might end and I applaud Kim for bringing him over. The conference is at an international level but is held here in Israel, and though I hate coommuting to Tel Aviv, it is much more convenient than Orlando or even Milan, and this conference is directed to practical issues. For reports of previous Best Practices in IP Conferences see here, here andhere. For more details of this conference and to register, contact Kim Lindy.